Girls’ Hockey Tour 2017

Girls’ Hockey Tour 2017

Girls Hockey Tour 2017

1st VII

2nd VII

Oakham U13 A & B

Lost 7 – 4

Drew 2 – 2

Bedford Modern U14B

Won 2 – 0

Lost 2 – 1

Oundle U14B

Lost 2 – 0

Lost 4 – 1

Although the above results only display one win and one draw the matches were all incredibly tight. Against Oakham the 1st VII were winning 4 – 3 at half-time whilst against Bedford Modern the 2nd VII were drawing 1 – 1 at half-time. However, sadly both matches ended in defeat.

Oakham U13A’s had one fantastic player who scored all 7 of their goals and that required us to use two players to mark her at all times. Icy did a fantastic job in the first half in goal and it was a great shame that she wasn’t able to play the 2nd half. However, the first half performance was extremely pleasing and it was clear to see passing and movement patterns beginning to develop between players. Likewise in the 2nd VII good passing and some strong tackling earned the girls a hard fought draw.

The Saturday afternoon game always has the capacity to be below the level of Friday’s performance due to the fact that the girls have had their heads in the ‘shopping clouds’ all morning and don’t always tend to be focused on the hockey. However, with Rebe absent due to a riding commitment Honor was thrown in at the deep end at centre forward in the 1st VII and worked hard for the team. After such a positive performance previously I was keen to make as few changes as possible to the personnel and the formation and this paid off as once again the link-up play and communication between the players was excellent. Goals from Bess and Honor in the first half gave us the lead and it stayed that way to the end.

The 2nd VII were involved in another close game with it being 1 – 1 at half-time. With Honor missing from the mid-field some changes were required and substitutions were made at regular intervals to give all girls as much of a game as possible. In the end the superior size and speed of the Year 9 girls showed and the girls narrowly went down 2 – 1.

Girls of the game as voted by the Bedford Modern players were – A Team – India D and B Team Faina X.

Oundle is our regular Sunday morning tour fixture and we were once again well looked after. Against a School of this size the fixture is always tough and so it proved once again with both teams going down. However, both teams should be extremely proud of the fight that they put up at the end of a busy tour. Year 7 girls playing against Year 9 girls is never easy and the physical difference in power and speed is considerable. Although the A team played some lovely passing hockey their speed of passing and shooting simply wasn’t quick enough to deal with the speed of the U14 girls nor was it powerful enough to score past a good goalkeeper. This is an area that we will be working on next week. However, the 2nd half resulted in a 0 – 0 draw which with tired legs was an excellent effort.

Whilst the B team were close at half-time with the score being 2 – 1, they eventually went down 4 – 1.

Girls of the game as voted by the Oundle players were – A Team – India D and B Team – Faina X.

Overall the tour was extremely beneficial, enjoyable and successful and the girls were well-behaved and good company. My thanks to Miss Williams and Mr. Morton for their fantastic support.